Magisteruppsats Master’s thesis (one year) Tourism Studies, 15 ECTS Social Media and its influence on destination image, tourist satisfaction and behavioral intentions of tourists visiting Shanghai Changlu Chen 1 SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON DESTINATION IMAGE, TOURIST SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS OF TOURISTS VISITING SHANGHAI A Master Thesis Present to Mid-Sweden University Master of Science, Tourism studies By Changlu Chen June,2016 2 SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON DESTINATION IMAGE, TOURIST SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS OF TOURISTS VISITING SHANGHAI Department of Social Science Mid-Sweden University, June 2016 Master of Science in Tourism Studies Changlu Chen ABSTRACT Social media is generally adopted as an important platform in providing tourism information and services as well as destination marketing in this era. The aim of this study is to explore how social media influences on overall destination image, overall tourist satisfaction and tourist behavioral intentions in the tourism destination analyzed from a tourists’ perspectives. This study proposes a structural model of the relationship among social media (SM), overall destination image (DI), overall tourist satisfaction (TS) and tourist behavioral intentions (BI). Chinese tourists departing from Shanghai Pudong international airport were selected as the samples in this study. One hundred and forty-two usable questionnaires were collected. The exploratory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to test the reliability and validity of constructs also by using AMOS; the proposed hypothesized model was tested by linear multiple regression in SPSS. The results demonstrate the causal relationship among social media, destination image, tourist satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Chinese tourists in Shanghai are generally satisfied with the tourism information of destination presented by social media, which has led positive tourists’ behavioral intentions in general. The findings indicate that social media as a tourism information and services platform could be used to influence the behavioral intentions of tourists. Last but not least, its contribution and implications for the tourist destination so as the limitation as well as future study were discussed in this study. Keyword: Social media, destination image, tourist satisfaction, behavioral intentions, tourism information, Shanghai, China, Tourism industry. 3 SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON DESTINATION IMAGE, TOURIST SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS OF TOURISTS VISITING SHANGHAI By Changlu Chen A Master Thesis Submitted to MIUN In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science, Tourism studies June,2016 Approved: ________________________________ Tatiana Chekalina ________________________________ Matthias Fuchs 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I am thankful to my thesis advisor Mrs. Tatiana Chekalina for her valuable guidance as well as encouragement throughout the process of writing the thesis. I would like to thank my friends in Shanghai who provided me support in distributing and collecting questionnaires successfully within the specified time. I also want to thank my Chinese friends for helping me doing the pilot test for the survey design as well as their helpful suggestions. My thesis cannot be completed without your support, therefore, I want to convey my sincere thanks to all people who helped and assisted me during this period. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 10 1.1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................... 10 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................... 11 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................. 11 1.4 AIMS OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................... 12 1.5 STUDY AREA ................................................................................................. 12 1.6 SCOPE OF STUDY ........................................................................................... 13 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................. 14 2.1 SOCIAL MEDIA ............................................................................................... 14 2.2 DESTINATION LOYALTY AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS ................................. 15 2.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS ........................................ 16 2.4 DESTINATION IMAGE ..................................................................................... 17 2.5 TOURIST SATISFACTION ................................................................................. 18 3 CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESIS ............................................. 20 4 SOCIAL MEDIA IN CHINA ............................................................................ 23 5 METHOD ........................................................................................................... 25 5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................................................... 25 5.2 QUESTIONNAIRE DISTRIBUTION .................................................................... 27 5.3 SAMPLING ..................................................................................................... 27 6 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................ 29 6.1 SAMPLE ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 29 6.2 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC ANALYSIS ............................................................... 35 6.3 RELIABILITY & VALIDITY ............................................................................. 40 6.4 ASSESSING RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ....................................................... 40 6.5 INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TEST ...................................................................... 45 6.6 MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSES ................................................................ 48 7 THREE MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS IN CHINA ...................... 52 7.1 SINA WEIBO .................................................................................................. 53 7.2 WECHAT ....................................................................................................... 56 7.3 MAFENGWO.COM .......................................................................................... 60 8 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 63 8.1 STATISTICAL IMPLICATION ............................................................................. 63 8.2 THEORETICAL IMPLICATION .......................................................................... 64 8.3 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATION ........................................................................... 64 8.4 THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA .............................................................. 66 9 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 68 10 LIMITATION ..................................................................................................... 70 11 FUTURE STUDY............................................................................................... 72 6 12 REFERENCE ..................................................................................................... 73 13 APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 82 13.1 APPENDIX A-RESEARCHED QUESTIONNAIRE-CHINESE VERSION .................. 82 13.2 APPENDIX B-RESEARCHED QUESTIONNAIRE-ENGLISH VERSION .................. 85 7 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1.MAJOR FIVE CATEGORIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS IN TOURISM INDUSTRY .............................................................................................................................. 23 TABLE 2.DEMOGRAPHIC DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................... 29 TABLE 3.MEAN VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA CONSTRUCT .................................................. 36 TABLE 4.MEAN VALUE OF DESTINATION IMAGE CONSTRUCT ......................................... 37 TABLE 5.MEAN VALUE OF TOURIST SATISFACTION CONSTRUCT. .................................... 37 TABLE 6.MEAN VALUE OF BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS CONSTRUCT ................................. 38 TABLE 7.MEAN VALUE AND STANDARD DEVIATION OF FOUR CONSTRUCTS. .................. 39 TABLE 8.CORRELATION TABLE OF FOUR CONSTRUCTS.................................................. 39 TABLE 9.CRONBACH’S ALPHA INDEX OF FOUR CONSTRUCTS ........................................ 41 TABLE 10.CORRELATION MATRIX OF RESEARCHED CONSTRUCTS .................................. 43 TABLE 11.C.R AND A.V.E OF FOUR CONSTRUCTS ......................................................... 43 TABLE 12.CFA OVERALL GOODNESS-OF-FIT. ................................................................ 44 TABLE 13.INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TEST (GENDER DIFFERENCE) ................................ 45 TABLE 14.T-TEST FOR EQUALITY OF MEANS (GENDER DIFFERENCE) ............................ 45 TABLE 15. INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TEST (“FOLLOW SHANGHAI OFFICIAL TOURISM ACCOUNT OR NOT” GROUP DIFFERENCE.) .............................................................